Thursday, August 31, 2017

August 31st...This Day in History (Now with links to other events)

Polish government signs accord with Gdansk shipyard workers 1980

On this day in 1980, representatives of the communist
government of Poland agree to the demands of striking shipyard workers
in the city of Gdansk. Former electrician Lech Walesa led the striking
workers, who went on to form Solidarity, the first independent labor
union to develop in a Soviet bloc nation.

In July 1980, facing economic crisis, Poland’s government raised the
price of food and other goods, while curbing the growth of wages. The
price hikes made it difficult for many Poles to afford basic
necessities, and a wave of strikes swept the country. Amid mounting
tensions, a popular forklift operator named Anna Walentynowicz was fired
from the Lenin Shipyard in the northern Polish city of Gdansk. In
mid-August, some 17,000 of the shipyard’s workers began a sit-down
strike to campaign for her reinstatement, as well as for a modest
increase in wages. They were led by the former shipyard electrician Lech
Walesa, who had himself been fired for union activism four years
earlier.

Despite governmental censorship and attempts to keep news of the
strike from getting out, similar protests broke out in industrial cities
throughout Poland. On August 17, an Interfactory Strike Committee
presented the Polish government with 21 ambitious demands, including the
right to organize independent trade unions, the right to strike, the
release of political prisoners and increased freedom of expression.
Fearing the general strike would lead to a national revolt, the
government sent a commission to Gdansk to negotiate with the rebellious
workers. On August 31, Walesa and Deputy Premier Mieczyslaw Jagielski
signed an agreement giving in to many of the workers’ demands. Walesa
signed the document with a giant ballpoint pen decorated with a picture
of the newly elected Pope John Paul II (Karol Wojtyla, the former
archbishop of Krakow).

In the wake of the Gdansk strike, leaders of the Interfactory Strike
Committee voted to create a single national trade union known as
Solidarnosc (Solidarity), which soon evolved into a mass social
movement, with a membership of more than 10 million people. Solidarity
attracted sympathy from Western leaders and hostility from Moscow, where
the Kremlin considered a military invasion of Poland. In late 1981,
under Soviet pressure, the government of General Wojciech Jaruzelski
annulled the recognition of Solidarity and declared martial law in
Poland. Some 6,000 Solidarity activists were arrested, including Walesa,
who was detained for almost a year. The Solidarity movement moved
underground, where it continued to enjoy support from international
leaders such as U.S. President Ronald Reagan, who imposed sanctions on
Poland. Walesa was awarded the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize, and after the
fall of communism in 1989 he became the first president of Poland ever
to be elected by popular vote.

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